Crime on the rise in…wait…Pacific Heights?

I live in Pacific Heights and belong to a neighborhood association. Yesterday I received this email from a neighbor who is passing along a warning about a robbery in our neighborhood. It happened last weekend. So I guess it’s not just Bernal Heights that is having problems with recent increase in crime. What gives??

AK

Fwd email:

At 11:30pm on Saturday, April 26th I was walking home from

dinner with my husband and my father. It was a very warm night and we could

not get a taxi from Pres a vis in the Presidio. As we approached Green

Street while walking up Divisadero, two young men wearing bright red

bandanas that covered their faces and carrying guns told me to give them my

purse. I did and they ran away – west on Green Street.

We promptly called the police who arrived within minutes. I

am mentioning this to the group because I have received two phone calls from

the police since the incident. Yesterday when they phoned they informed me

that they still had not arrested the guys, but in fact they had struck

several more times, that they know of, along Divisadero Street. One time

they even approached two men who were walking together, so it’s not just

women by themselves or in a group that are the target.

Both times the police called it was to ask if I could

identify the criminals in a lineup. Because the bandanas covered their

faces and they were wearing hats (along with baggy jeans and dark

sweatshirts) I could not be certain of their identities. The police

officers told me that the robberies are being committed by young members of

a Hispanic gang from South San Francisco. They drive down the street,

selecting potential victims, and then plan the attack a few blocks ahead and

escape again in their car parked nearby.

Please be careful walking at night. I was only 4 doors down

from my house when this occurred.

The police officer I spoke to last night assured me he would

call and let me know if/when they make an arrest.

Darnit, we’re going to have to find a cool video to brighten this Friday! And does this also beg the question, will this make Pacific Heights real estate prices go bust?

“The police officers told me that the robberies are being committed by young members of a Hispanic gang from South San Francisco. They drive down the street, selecting potential victims, and then plan the attack a few blocks ahead and escape again in their car parked nearby.”

How is it possible to find a parking spot in Pacific Heights at night?

Either these gang members have incredible parking karma, or the conspiracy runs deeper than we know…

Wow, this is a pretty naive post, crime is everwhere in any urban area – it’s only when you get to the SFH areas out in lala-land (west of Divis) where it really starts to decline. The difference between Pac. Heights and say the Mission, is not that crime occurs, but the TYPE of crime – areas like the Mission are much higher in violent crimes and sometimes narcotics busts, whereas the Pac. Heights like areas tend to have non-violent crimes (car break-ins for example). Check out http://www.sfgov.org/site/police_index.asp?id=23813 for crime maps.

I get the distinct feeling that crime is on the rise; yet at the same time I don’t believe Karmala Harris is prosecuting any. I only see her show up on Larry King Live talking about the election, positioning herself as somebody that will one day be a leader in California (perhaps run for Mayor after Newsom and then go on to run for governor, as she was hand picked by Willie Brown to move in that direction). However, I haven’t see her on any local news outlets addressing the rise in crime and what she is going to do about it. With Karmala Harris and Heather Fong together running the enforcement side of the show, I am not really optimistic that things will change.